Editorial Ta Nea: Scandals

14:14 9/4/2019 - Πηγή: In.gr

At first the Novartis case was advertised as the biggest scandal since the establishment of the Greek state and the justice minister advised those who were allegedly implicated to prepare their defence well.

Those statements alone bear witness to the fact that the government from

the start hastened to exploit the Novartis case politically.

Hence, one is justified in viewing the affair from a political perspective and in concluding that a political conspiracy collapsed.

One can safely assume that the further probe of five of the ten politicians who were investigated serves the same political objectives.

The government is trying to keep the case in the news as a scandal even though it appears to be the biggest case of scandal-mongering of the last years.

The reasons are obvious and are related to the theory of a government minister who said that, “We have to put some people in jail [for corruption] in order to win the general election again.”

Corruption, which is alive and well in Greece as international studies indicate, cannot be combated with mudslinging. On the contrary, the battle is lost because the political environment is poisoned and division and polarisation prevail.

The political consensus needed to wage the anti-corruption battle is being destroyed, and that in itself is a first-class scandal.